Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 2, 2018

The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Coronation Class is a class of express passenger steam locomotives designed by William Stanier. They were an enlarged and improved version of his previous design, the LMS Princess Royal Class. The locomotives were specifically designed for power as it was intended to use them on express services between London Euston and Glasgow Central; their duties were to include the hauling of a proposed non-stop express, subsequently named the Coronation Scot. The first ten locomotives of the Coronation class were built in a streamlined form in 1937 by the addition of a steel streamlined casing. Five of these ten were specifically set aside to pull the Coronation Scot. The very last of the 38 locomotives was completed in 1948. No. 6220 Coronation held the British steam speed record between 1937 and 1939. No. 6234 Duchess of Abercorn holds the record to this day for the greatest British power output to be officially recorded on an attached dynamometer car, achieved in 1939. Unfortunately the most memorable event in the history of the class was the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash precipitated by 46242 City of Glasgow. This was the second worst rail crash in British history, the death toll being 112. After a successful decade of operations in the 1950s, the 1960s' modernisation plan was the ultimate undoing of the Coronations. Not only did the increasing use of diesel locomotives make many of the class redundant, but the electrification of the main line between London Euston and Crewe also resulted in their banishment from this important section of the main line as there was insufficient clearance between the locomotives and the live wires. With no useful role to play, the survivors were scrapped en masse in late 1964. Three locomotives were saved for preservation. As of October 2016, two are static in museums whilst the third is fully certificated for main line service